University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

Page 26 text:

DURING the forty years since I entered the University, it has grown from a student roll of six hundred to a position where its total enrollment of over twenty-five thousand entitles it to rank as the largest university in the world; where the faculty alone is four times as large as the entire student body of my time ; where the numbers of graduates at commencement have increased nearly three thousand per cent since my own student days. The past few years have been characterized by one of the most remarkable achievements of building activity ever witnessed upon the campus. The Women ' s Gymnasium has been completed ; Bowles Hall has given us our first real dormitory ; the much-needed Infirmary is now an accomplished fact; Giannini Hall is arising, rich with promise to agricultural California; International House will soon be a reality ; the new Life Science Building stands out as one of the largest and most complete educational structures to be found anywhere; and, best of all, the Uni- versity entrance facing the Golden Gate has ceased to be the back door. I congratulate the student body of today upon these wonderful improvements, provided by private beneficence and by the generosity of the people of our state. California believes in its University, is proud of it and delights to see it grow. We believe in it because we know that the young men and women who are , leaving its halls today, as older men and women will be California ' s leaders of tomorrow. As students and alumni may we ever strive to hand down to future generations a University which will continue to stand forth as one of California ' s most valued and cherished possessions. 6

Page 25 text:

FACULTY ADM NISTRAT ON Joseph Le Conte ivas one of the first professors to come to the University of California. He was professor of natural sciences here from 1870 until his death in 1901. This pic- ture was taken in the high Sierra, where he did much research work and discovered new regions. The Le Conte trail from Tehipite Valley to Yosemite is a memorial to him and many peaks today hear names that he gave them. He was our most be- loved professor and inspired all who knew him.

Page 27 text:

HAVE no hesitation in saying that responsibility is the strongest educational force in existence. He who assumes responsibility is under positive obligation to carry on to a successful conclusion. Whatever the nature of the problems in- volved, he must think them through to the end, decide, act, and put on the finishing touches of their solution; otherwise, what he has done will not be satis- factory (except by pure accident), and will not stay done. If we were to pass in review the 1000 graduates of our American universities who in the 30, 40 and 50 years of their active lives have been quite generally recognized as on the list of Distinguished Americans, we should find that nearly all of them have lived their lives in college seriously, though in fine spirit; that they came to college with high ambitions, or developed such ambitions while in college ; and that they were ready, both in college and out of college, to assume the responsibilities which so effectively aided in the development of their intellect and judgment. College graduates seldom go higher in the great world than the mark at which they prevailingly aimed while in college. We may be certain that such citizens as Elihu Root, Charles Evans Hughes, and Owen D. Young developed high ambitions at least as early as their years in college and discharged their college responsibilities with corresponding energy and con- science. Our colleges and universities have been founded and are maintained with intent to receive only those students who are ambitious to become somebody worth while and who in due time will he ready to accept their share of responsibility. [15] -